Before the introduction of
the World Wide Web in the 1990’s, very few foreign (non-Spanish) pilgrims
walked the old pilgrimage trails to Santiago.
A few English speaking 19th and 20th century
academics, interested in medieval art and pilgrimage history, sought out the
old roads to document the art, architecture, history, legends and folklore along
the Way. Some wrote about their passion.
In 1917 American Art
Historian Georgiana Goddard King completed her three part
study, “The Way of St. James” based on three years wanderings on foot, by cart,
mule, and other conveyance on the pilgrimage roads to Santiago.
In 1923 Harvard Professor Arthur
Kingsley Porter compiled 10 volumes of the “Romanesque Sculpture of the
Pilgrimage Roads”.
In 1957, the Irish Professor of
Hispanic studies, Walter Starkie, wrote “The Road to Santiago-Pilgrims of Saint
James” which was based on his four journeys on el Camino between 1934 and 1955.
1n 1982 Don Elias Valina
Sampedro, the Cebreiro parish priest who reanimated the Camino pilgrimage roads
in Spain, published his guide for walking the Camino trails to Santiago. 1,868 pilgrims received the Compostela that
year, but this was accredited mainly to the visit of Pope John Paul II.
In 1985, the pilgrim’s office
received 690 pilgrims. As usual, the majority of these were Spanish
pilgrims.
In 1987 the Brazilian author
Paulo Coelho published his book The Pilgrimage which inspired hundreds of
pilgrims from South America to cross the sea to Spain in search of their own
[metaphorical] sword. Once the book was
published in different languages, devotees from other parts of the world followed
suit. 2905 pilgrims received a
Compostela that year
Most modern St James Confraternities
were formed in the 1980’s and this helped to boost the numbers of foreign
pilgrims to some extent but they were still in the minority.
It is interesting that there
were so few pilgrims from the Americas, Oceania, Asia and Africa that numbers were
not recorded until the Holy Year of 1999 when 4160 pilgrims were recorded as
being from the ‘Americas’.
Considering
that the numbers of pilgrims rose by almost 1000% in Holy Years, one can
presume that in ordinary years, the number of pilgrims from the Americas didn’t
exceed double digits. (There is no record of the exact numbers from each
country as the pilgrim office clumped all people from South and North America and
Canada into one group).
Although the Compostela
certificate was introduced in the 1950’s, early records were lost and the only available
records of walking pilgrims arriving in the city date to the 1970’s. The late Don Jaime of Santiago’s cathedral
found an old record book kept by his predecessor which showed that in 1967 37
pilgrims earned the Compostela and in 1971, which was a Holy Year, 491 pilgrims
received the certificate.
There was a sharp rise in pilgrim
numbers in 1989 when the Pope visited Santiago and 5760 Compostelas were
issued. Of these, 3367 were Spanish
pilgrims, more than all of the other countries added together.
World Wide Web
But, the winds of change were blowing across cyber-space and more than books, magazine
or newspaper articles, more than confraternities spreading the word or visits by the Pope, the advent
of the World Wide Web in 1991 started an exponential explosion of
information about the Camino pilgrimage that would accelerate the pilgrimage into almost Haj like status!
In 1994 Internet ‘blogging’
was introduced and a young American journalist, Justin Hall, was credited with
being one of the earliest bloggers. From a few fledging Camino blogs, there are
now millions written about every route possible, by people from all over the
world.
The Google search engine was
born in 1998 which enabled people interested in the Santiago Pilgrimage to find
websites, blogs or books with the click of a mouse!
Books:
Many pilgrim writers found
publishers for their books and a slow trickle of new titles started appearing
on the bookshelves.
1991: Spanish Pilgrimage - A Canter to St James -
Robin Hanbury-Tenison
1994: Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk
down the Pilgrim’s Route into Spain - Jack
Hitt
1994: Road of Stars to Santiago:
Stanton, Edward
1996: El Camino:
Walking to Santiago de Compostela by Lee Hoinacki
1997: Foot by Foot to Santiago de Compostela - Judy Foot
1998: On Pilgrimage - Lash, Jennifer
In 2000 there was a flurry of
new titles:
Actress and author Shirley
Maclaine’s book ‘My Camino’ sent New Age pilgrims off to the Camino in search
of their personal saints or proof of their previous lives.
Also in 2000, The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago - by David M Gitlitz & Linda K
Davidson was released. It is still considered to be the Camino Bible that
discusses the history, tradition, folk lore, saint's lives, art, architecture,
geology and fauna and flora of the Camino Frances from Somport and from
Roncesvalles.
The couple
walked to Santiago in 1974, 1979, 1987 and 1993 accompanying groups of
student-pilgrims on academic, medieval study programs. In 1974 they did not
meet even one other pilgrim on the road to Compostela. In 1979 the met an
elderly Frenchman who was fulfilling a vow made in the Second World War.
In 2006 Hape
Kerkeling, a German comedian, published a book a book about his experiences on
the Camino 5 years earlier. The
following year the number of German speaking pilgrims rose by 25%.
(More books
here: http://amawalker.blogspot.com/2009/09/books-on-camino.html)
English Forums:
The Camino Forum Santiagobis
was started on Yahoo.com in October 2000.
In 2004 the Santiago-Today
forum was started: //www.caminodesantiago.me/
They also offered the first
Forum that I joined – GoCamio - which is now hosted by the American Pilgrims on
the Camino.
Films
2011: The latest film is a ‘Hollywood’style movie called THE WAY featuring Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez.
Since the release of this film, the number of pilgrims from the US has gone up 80%. Numbers from other English language countries has also risen sharply.
You’ll find a comprehensive list of films, dvds and documentaries here.
http://amawalker.blogspot.com/2009/09/doumentaries-movies-and-videos-on.html
In 2012 over 200 000 pilgrims
will have received the Compostela. Close
to another 750 000 will have walked parts of the many Camino trails in
Europe.
For a historical timeline
of the Camino visit:
